Is It Halloween Yet?

If you, like me, have the unfortunate honour of owning a dog with a relatively weak stomach, you would probably have already found out about the wonders of feeding him/her steamed pumpkin during the latest bout. We of course learnt it the hard way. Although Sugar had a weak stomach, she could always recover on her own after a couple of days on a boiled rice diet. Belle the 2 year-old is a different monster altogether. For no apparent reason, her delicate tummy starts acting up even with food she has been on for months. Trips to the vet’s had proven futile since they could only conclude that she has a hyper-sensitive stomach and should be put on an hypoallergenic diet after she recovers from the latest bout of diarrhea. We heeded the advice and put her on one for several months, but it was seriously burning a hole in our pockets (it costs 4 times more than the premium brand we are feeding the girls).

Slowly, we weaned Belle back into the old diet after feeding her pumpkin with boiled rice for several days, taking care to observe her closely. She seems to be doing well on it now (could be a case of outgrowing the sensitivity) but her poop is never really firm like Paris’. I have been on the search for a long-term sustainable solution and this pumpkin dog biscuits recipe is like god-sent!

I have taken the liberty to ‘localise’ the recipe posted by Marilyn (I hope you don’t mind!) because canned pumpkin and brown rice flour are not easily found off the supermarket shelves. Also, I prefer to work with more precise measurements. I could always purée the mashed pumpkin after it cooled down but I prefer to work with the un-puréed version for these dog biscuits.

It’s weird how the furkids always seem to know that I’m cooking/baking food for them. Perhaps the fact that I do not chase them out of the kitchen was already a huge hint. Here’s my reworked version of Cleo’s Pumpkin Dog Biscuits:

When I was at Step 5 of the instructions, I suddenly decided that the dough portion was too small and not worth my time. I stopped my KA, went to check if I still had enough flour for another portion. And guess what, I did! Without wasting another second, I weighed out the ingredients for a second portion of dough, removed the first set of dough from the KA bowl temporarily and started working on the second batch. Towards the end, I combined both doughs in the KA to mix well.

This is a very forgiving recipe: it didn’t matter that I made the dough sit around for too long, over-mixed or stopped halfway, and decided to double the portion. Just take note that the dough does become very sticky after mixing, and my KA was grunting and groaning as double portions of the dough stuck to the paddle attachment. A lesser mixer would have fallen apart.

The two furkids went completely ballistic when the biscuits were baking away in the oven. Nothing I did would distract them away from the kitchen. And as I was finishing up with this post in the study, the younger furkid was running to and fro the study and kitchen, as if reminding me not to forget about her biscuits baking in the oven. It was a rather funny sight watching them like that and I missed it, because it’s been a while since I baked for them. In fact, this is the first time I’ve ever baked for Belle. Do note that I know for certain my two furkids are not allergic to wheat (they have eaten commercially-produced dog biscuits) hence the decision to use all-purpose flour. However, feel free to change to a more wholesome option if necessary. And if you are scrutinising the thickness of my biscuits, you would realise I had been rather care-less. Well, I have 2 adult golden retrievers with very hearty appetites so I’m not worried about wasting food at all.

You could see how Belle was not amused with my taunting them with a biscuit, and cheerful Paris with her messy fur (if only someone could tell me how to keep a younger furkid from messing up her elder sibling’s fur). I have been rather emotionally detached from these two younger furkids ever since the oldest passed on last year. Suffice it to say that these two are in dire need of some serious pampering. And they are getting it daily, albeit in small doses, for the next ten days!

P/S. For some reason or another, these cookies don’t last. It could be the way the hubby handled them (e.g with his hands wet). He discovered this morning that the cookies have turned bad, 7 days after they were baked.

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I am a wife, a daughter, a sister, a friend and a colleague to at least one other person in the world. I am also a hopeless romantic at heart, choosing to believe in love and fairy tales. I am most happy when writing or reading a good book while listening to my expansive genre of music cds.